In the commercial printing industry, the cost for printing a print job depends at least in part on the print media used, the volume of ink printed, the time required to print the job, and the energy costs associated with operating the printing system including the energy costs associated with drying the ink on the print media. When a print shop receives a print job, the print shop and the customer need to agree to a price for completion of the print job. For large or complex print jobs, it can be difficult to estimate an appropriate price for the print job without, for example, a careful analysis of the ink consumption for each document in the print job or an analysis of the time required to print the job, which includes estimating the time required to RIP the print job or estimating the print speed constraints associated with providing sufficient time to dry the ink before the printed side of the print media contacts a roller.
While there are estimating tools available for providing estimates for each of these costs, the estimating tools require processing each of the documents within the print job to determine ink consumption rates and the other costs. For large or complex print jobs, especially for variable data print jobs, the processing of each document can become a laborious task which adds costs to the print job. The price estimate must often be given based on preliminary, and not final data. The final data could alter the ink used in the final print job based on image content, and may not be available until just prior to printing.
There remains a need therefore for an improved means for determining and controlling the cost for a print job that ensure a profit for the print shop while providing a print quality and price that are acceptable to the customer.